As a film franchise, Friday the 13th is in serious limbo right now, with a pressing legal issue preventing any new films from being made. To make a long story short, Victor Miller, the original film’s scriptwriter, claims he wasn’t employed when he wrote the movie and thus is looking to terminate a grant of rights and reclaim ownership of the property. In response, Sean Cunningham and his Horror Inc. have filed a lawsuit against Miller; essentially, the lawsuit leaves the future of the franchise hanging in the balance. For now, it lies dormant.

Sadly, while the legal issues hadn’t been an problem for Friday the 13th: The Game up to this point, that has changed. We’ve just learned that the game’s future is also now uncertain.

Here’s the full e-mail from Gun Media today…

Friday the 13th: The Game has established a loyal and excited fan base over the last year. As publisher/developer, Gun and Illfonic have made every effort to provide our fans with an authentic and great gaming experience.

As many in our community may be aware, a legal claim has been made which could affect all future Friday the 13th intellectual property. Although in the past the game has not been subject to any such claim, new content and material going forward will be affected. An initial decision in this case was expected in October 2017, but no decision has yet been issued. The court review of the legal rights is in process, but final resolution may take some time. Until the claim rights can be dismissed or resolved, no new content can be released.

When we originally learned that the game fell within the crosshairs of this legal dispute, we tried to balance the creation of new content requested by our fans against the maintenance and bug fixing that our community expects and deserves. We attempted to do both within the limits of the legal case.

We’ve now been forced to accept that the lawsuit makes future content for the game, including alternate play modes, new playable Jasons and Counselors, and new maps, unfeasible now or in the future. Although the listed content types will be affected, we remain committed to launching dedicated servers on our console platforms and providing the continued maintenance and bug fixing important to supporting our fan base.

So what does this mean exactly? There will be no additional content added to Friday the 13th: The Game. This includes “Uber Jason”, The Grendel Map, Jason Kill Packs, Clothing, Emotes and new Counselors.

It seems that literally all things Friday the 13th are in a holding pattern at this time, which is a major bummer. Whoever wins the case, it’s us fans who are losing right about now.

The good news? The team isn’t stopping…

Don’t worry. We aren’t stopping. We will continue to bug fix, optimize, balance, and provide routine maintenance to the game. Servers will remain on! Dedicated servers for console are on the way. Like Jason, we can take the hits and we will keep coming back.